Well, Saint Patrick's Day weekend in Savannah is almost over, and what fabulous party wouldn't be complete without tornadoes and a four county blackout?
I was actually very pleasantly surprised at how well behaved everyone's been this weekend. The arrest rate, overall, was down. Although some of the more memorable included the standard drunk-woman-swimming-in-a-fountain story, and the guy caught with his hands down another guy's pants, who then insisted that a graphic description of what he was accused of doing be read aloud to the night court. The woman in the fountain was sobbing when she went before the judge, and still just a little dripping wet. The judge asked her if she'd had her clothes on while she was in the fountain, and the woman said yes. "Well, at least that's something," replied the judge.
Last night, we did have some very severe weather. Severe enough that me and TFYO spent some time hanging out in my walk-in closet with a battery powered lantern and some books. A tornado passed very close to the house. It missed us, and took out the main distribution power substation instead, plunging four counties into complete darkness, including the city of Savannah, where around a hundred thousand people were whooping it up between City Market and River Street.
Again, I am glad that I live in an area where emergency services know exactly what to do when disaster strikes, and I'm glad that, generally, I live in a city where people are well behaved. The police used their car lights, and generators, to get enough power and light going to move people to shuttles and get them out of the downtown area in an orderly fashion. There were no reports of arson, or looting, and everyone pretty much did as they were told, and got the hell out before the storms hit the city itself. There was no wide-scale pandemonium from what I could tell, and that was very reassuring. If a hurricane ever does hit here, I feel confident that we'll either all make it out in time, or we'll be well assisted one way or another.
Ray ended up driving in to work to help cover the evacuation, although by the time he got there, the power was back on at our house.
Big kudos to Georgia Power, too. It took a little while to get power back to all areas, but it happened more quickly than I would have thought possible. Our power was only off for a couple of hours, and by the time Ray headed home, they were slowly getting power back in to parts of Chatham County. Of all the places I've lived, Georgia Power by far has the quickest response time. Makes me happy knowing all that stuff in the freezer stayed frozen.
It was another forty-five hour week for me, and I did work about an hour yesterday afternoon, plus I managed an air shift, too! I console myself with the fact that I do get paid overtime, and it will come in handy when I go on maternity leave, just five more weeks.
